Vatanen: The best thing is a change
Former rally champ and would-be FIA president Ari Vatanen today had harsh words for his competitor, former Ferrari chief Jean Todt, but can you guess whose name was really in the cross-hairs?
Max Mosley.
OK, not the most difficult F1 politics question. But Vatanen clearly has staked out his territory as the agent of change versus Todt, who he said “represents the old era” in an interview with the Spanish newspaper AS:
“Although I have criticized the FIA strongly, I have never aimed it at Mosley personally.
“But it’s not good that a leader stays in the post for a long time, and when that happens, the best thing is a change. And I represent that change, a new era with more freshness.
“On the contrary, Jean Todt represents the old era, and it’s not right that Max wants to impose a new leader, and that he uses the power of the federation to support his campaign. The FIA is not a kingdom; it’s a republic where the leaders are chosen democratically.
“At Ferrari they don’t want Todt to be president, and so they have told me, because they think they sport would lose credibility. The same would happen if it was Ross Brawn or Flavio Briatore running. The president of the FIA must be someone neutral.”
[It is unclear if Ferrari actually is pushing against Todt. They are not on any public record at this point, but, again, Maranello's role in this fight will certainly be huge, even if it is in the background.]
It is no surprise that Vatanen would try to create a clear choice for the world’s auto clubs, and no surprise he’d stake out the “change” position. It is an age-old campaign technique when running against the incumbent or that incumbent’s hand-picked successor.
The question, however, hasn’t essentially changed in about 18 months (or even more): Do those with the votes want change or are they happy with how Max has run the FIA? We know how effectively Max has spread the wealth to the smaller clubs that bolstered him after his bit of self-inflicted bad press. And if he was telling the truth that many were asking him not to step down from his position, Vatanen is the decided underdog in this race.
I do think FOTA has powered up to a point where it can act as a counter to the “agents of no change.” But I think winning a battle over the 2010 regulations is a far cry from winning a battle for the FIA presidency.
We undoubtedly have not seen even the beginning to how nasty this campaign will become.
Loading ...
I’ve mentioned it before, but in order to lend your post an added touch of credibility, try including a link to the original quote. That way we can check the source and judge whether things are taken out of context or if there is more to the story.
Are you implying that NC is indulging in strategic application of the truth?
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77019
Its SJ’s story, not NCs…cut him some slack he’s still a little green.
Hi Arnet:
I gave the bulk of the quote to try to give that context to the greatest extent possible. And, where possible, I’m going to try to find the original source (for instance, on the post about Le Seb considering a lawsuit, I got his full statement from his official web site).
Spanish newspapers are a bit more obscure, but I saw this quote at a couple of sites, including the autosport link above. Since it wasn’t the original source, I didn’t think it provided additional context.
I appreciate the feedback; as SR said, I’m new to posting here — although I have a bit of experience in the news business. Now, whether that gives *me* more or less credibility is up for debate! I’ll be getting NC a bio soon for the page.
Enjoy the weekend.
Thanks Arnet for keeping us honest. I have tried to include sources wherever possible since the first time you mentioned it as I thought it was terrific wisdom and something I was not providing our readers. Keep the critical thinking coming guys as it helps improve the site for your benefit.
Eau Rouge: You know me, always applying strategic truth. :) good one mate.
SJ: SJ Skid has a fine pedigree in the business and I appreciate his desire to find single, credible source instead of regurgitated sources. As with a blog; you’re left with that sometimes and I try to only use secondary or tertiary sources from people that are reputable or sites that many of you would trust or at least know the bias. Not always easy but thanks to Arnet, I am trying harder to provide a more complete experience for all of you.
SR: Thanks for the catch SR. It’s good to know you got my back mate. :)
NC, I know it’s not the first time I’ve mentioned it, and maybe it’s on the level of a pet peeve, but to me it’s more to do with what I’ve come to expect from blogs and news sites. For F1 blogs, I guess http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/ has become the bench-mark, and Keith is pretty religious about including his sources, although there was some discussion around using GMM as a news source.
For the web-sites that like to think of themselves as more serious news disseminators, here are two that covered the same story, but mentioned the source, with no link.
http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=38454
http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5439170,00.html
I don’t really take PlanetF1 very seriously as all they do is regurgitate information they’ve gathered themselves elsewhere, and Pitpass, well perhaps they take themselves a bit too seriously, although they are very well connected and seem to be on the leading edge of breaking news.
Having said all that, I really like this blog, I think you do a terrific job of blending news and opinion (don’t ever hold that back!). I guess I’m just used to finding sources in blogs and news sources, since I spend far too much time reading online info. It doesn’t mean I always click through to see where the info came from. It’s enough to hover my cursor over the link and see that perhaps your source was Autosport, and I can pretty much trust that if you’re quoting them I don’t need to go any further. Then again, if you want to discuss Kimi leaving Ferrari based on some old quote from a Spanish newspaper, I’ll know that maybe we should give this one some space and time to mature.
At any rate, your blog will continue to have a permanent spot in my Google Reader and I’ll be checking in daily. Keep up the great work. By the way, your trivia questions are too hard for this fan, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Best way to learn…….
Thanks for the kind words mate. We consider it an honor to be mentioned with Keith as I have always found him to be a class act and terrific guy. I do know the GMM concerns you speak of with other British bloggers.
We’ve never made any bones about it; we are not a news site. We don’t pretend to be an Autosport or any other F1 news portal or feed. We are not. We are a journal of F1 opinion. I leave the news to the main F1 news sites and even bloggers like Keith or Pitpass as they do a good job with that milieu. We are something different and your participation in that process, Arnet, is most graciously appreciated and actually defines our nature and mission more clearly with each post. Thank you again and it is a pleasure to have you here.